ON THE 

RACE HISTORY AND FACIAL CHARACTERISTICS 
OF THE ABORIGINAL AMERICANS 



BY 



W. H. HOLMES 



DEC 2 b 192 



FROM THE SMITHSONIAN REPORT FOR 1919, PAGES 427-432 
(WITH 14 PLATES) 




(Publication 2610) 



WASHINGTON 
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
1921 



ON THE 

RACE HISTORY AND FACIAL CHARACTERISTICS 
OF THE ABORIGINAL AMERICANS 



BT 



W: H. HOLMES 5 o 8690 



FROM THE SMITHSONIAN REPORT FOR 1919, PAGES 427-432 
(WITH 14 PLATES) 




(Publication 2610) 



WASHINGTON 
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
1921 



Mis' 



ON THE EACE HISTOEY AND FACIAL CHARACTERIS- 
TICS OF THE ABOEIGINAL AMERICANS. 



By W. H. Holmes. 

[With 14 plates.] 
BIRTH OF THE RACE. 

Among the many marvels that modern science has brought to light 
none is more wonderful and none less welcome than that which 
defines the place of man in the scheme of nature — his origin and his 
kinship, physical and intellectual, with the whole vast range of 
living things. It is made clear that the several races of man to-day 
represent the culminating stages of a branching series which con- 
nects back through simpler and still more simple ancestral forms to 
the primary manifestations of life in the remote past. 

As outlined by the researches of the naturalist, the story of the 
becoming of the race is simply told. It is observed that the forms 
taken by the evolving life series were necessarily due largely to the 
environmental conditions under which they developed — that a world 
of waters molded forms fitted to live and move in the water, that a 
world of land developed distinct types accommodated to the condi- 
tions of the land, and that an environment comprising both land 
and water brought into existence types adjusted to both land and 
water. On the land there were further adaptations to special con- 
ditions of the particular environment. The inhabitants of the plains 
differed essentially from the inhabitants of the forests, for while the 
one employed the four members of the body in locomotion, the other 
used the feet to walk and the hands to climb and to do ; and here is 
found the point of departure in the shaping up of the special being 
called man. Fitness for higher things was determined by the forest, 
for life among the branches and the vines developed the grasping 
hand, and the hand made man a possibility. The hands alone, how- 
ever, were not responsible for the full result, since had the race con- 
tinued to dwell in the forest man would to-day be merely a simple, 
undeveloped denizen of the woodland. The feet made the conquest 
of the earth possible. It is assumed that by reason of some unde- 
termined contingency, such as great increase in population, the de- 
pletion of the forest food supply, or other gradually developing 

427 



428 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN" INSTITUTION, 1919. 



cause, the children of the woodland cradle were compelled to seek 
their fortunes in the open, and the real struggle of existence began, 
the struggle that perfected the man. The grasping hands, freed from 
the forest and free to act independently of locomotion, led to the use 
of improvised implements in meeting foes, in preparing food, in 
constructing defenses and shelters, and finally to the shaping of 
tools, the initial step in the evolution of art, while the feet enabled 
their possessor to move with freedom in the pursuit of varied call- 
ings. Thus the hands, with the aid of the feet, directed by the 
rapidly developing brain, conquered the world. 

SPECIALIZATION OF THE RACES. 

Prolonged study of the available traces of man's origin and early 
movements as recorded in the book of books — the geologic strata — 
has led to the view that the natal place of the race must be sought 
somewhere in southern Asia or on the great islands of the southern 
seas. As conceived to-day, the outward movements of the human pio- 
neer from the primeval home were at first and for a long time hesitat- 
ing and slow. New conditions had to be met and diversified obstacles 
overcome, the exigencies of existence tending to develop the capaci- 
ties of both brain and hand, and new environments to modify and 
emphasize the physical type of the isolated groups. We may think, for 
example, of certain groups of pioneers as they ventured into the open 
turning their faces to the west, occupying the valleys, skirting the 
shores of the inland seas, and climbing the intervening ranges until, 
in the fullness of time, the shores of the Atlantic were reached. 
Centers of population would develop at many points, and in western 
Europe traces of occupation recently uncovered date back to remote 
periods. From these centers expansion would take place in many direc- 
tions. Not finding a passage to the western world beyond the shores 
of Britain, the populations would from necessity spread to the east, 
where they would encounter other currents spreading to the north 
from the primeval home over the vast expanse of central Asia, these 
latter representing the great Mongol race which to-day comprises, 
with its many blends, the majority of the human kind. Other cur- 
rents from the southern home would pass to the east, occupying the 
shores of the chain of seas bordering the Pacific, peopling the count- 
less islands that dot the waters, reaching in due course the far north- 
east, where further progress would be arrested by the broad expanse 
of open sea now known as Bering Strait. The differentiations of 
types gradually produced by early isolations would, as populations 
increased, be lessened by constant blending along the borders, and 
to-day the process of obliteration of race distinctions is progressing 
in ever-increasing ratio. 



ABOKIGINAL AMERICANS HOLMES. 



429 



THE AMERICAN RACE. 

In turning our attention to the American race, we study their 
facial characters in search of clues to their origin — their relationship 
with and their derivation from the complex of known peoples of the 
Old World. It is generally conceded that the red race is a new race as 
compared with the great races of the Old World. There have been 
found in America, after prolonged research, no certain traces of occu- 
pation extending back beyond a few thousand years ; whereas, in the 
Old World there are abundant traces of human occupation whose age 
must be reckoned not in thousands, but in tens of thousands of years. 
The earliest skeletal remains in the New World are of men represent- 
ing the perfected stage of physical development, the crania corre- 
sponding closely with those of civilized man; whereas, in the Old 
World the earliest finds are of forms hardly differentiated from the 
status of the higher apes. 

It is not assumed that the pioneers of the Old World, who in fol- 
lowing the tendency to wander reached the shores of Bering Sea, 
arrived in large numbers — that there was anything that could be 
called a migration, but that stragglers from Asiatic centers of popu- 
lation found their way across the intervening waters to the shores 
of America; and the process, continuing from century to century, 
involved not a single people nor a few more or less fully differentiated 
groups, but representatives of many of the brown-skinned peoples 
of the Asiatic shore land and of the islands of the Pacific and 
Indian Oceans. That some such process was involved is assumed 
from the fact that the American race to-day does not, as a whole, 
distinctly duplicate any known type of the Oriental groups, its 
homogenous character being due doubtless to a long period of race 
isolation, the diversified elements thus becoming blended into a new 
and distinctive people. It is probable that this condition was 
brought about or greatly accelerated by the eastern progress of the 
northern Asiatics, who for an indefinite period have occupied the 
shores of Bering Strait and Sea, blocking the way to the more 
southern groups. 

FACIAL CHARACTERS AS A KEY TO ORIGIN. 

Although there has been more or less blending of the Eskimo and 
the Indian along the line of contact from Alaska to Greenland, the 
two races in their totality stand well apart. The very pronounced 
gulf between them is well shown by comparison of the typical Indian 
of the northern interior (pi. 1, fig. 1, and pi. 2, fig. 1) with the typical 
Eskimo (pi. 1, fig. 2, and pi. 2, fig. 2), the latter type being character- 
ized by the broad face and tilted eyes of the Mongol. The Indian, 
whose bold features stamp him as one of the ablest of the races, 



430 AJSnSTOAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 

occupies to-day the entire continent from the Eskimo boundary to 
Patagonia. "We find no closely allied types in the adjacent Provinces 
of Asia, but there are approximations among the dark-skinned peo- 
ples of southern Asia, and probable kinship is suggested by plate 3. 
figures 1 and 2, the first a typical American Indian of New Mexico 
and the other a native of the island of Formosa. That the latter 
may be thought of as representing one of the groups which gave 
rise to the American race is reasonable, and relationships are further 
suggested by plates 4. 5. and 6. Here on the one hand we have a 
pair of young Apache Indians of Arizona and on the other two 
southern Asiatics, the one from the island of Sumatra and the other 
from the Philippines. That the facial evidence does not point to an 
exclusive island origin is suggested by a comparison of the face of 
the Xavajo woman (pi. 7, fig. 1) with that of the Mongolian man 
shown in plate 7, figure 2. It is to be expected that with the incom- 
ing currents of Asiatic peoples there would be a considerable Mongol 
element, and this, though submerged, would tend to reappear. It 
should be noted, however, that Eskimo influence may have, in cases, 
extended as far south as the Xavajo country. 

The contrasting facial characters of the American Indian with 
the typical Asiatic Mongol is suggested by plate 8, figures 1 and 2, 
the first an Indian woman of the Great Plains and the second a 
Kalmuck of central Asia ; and this contrast is still further empha- 
sized by comparing the bold profile of a Cheyenne Indian (pi. 9, 
fig. 1) with that of a typical Mongolian (pi. 9, fig. 2). 

In South America there appears no definite trace of the Mongol, 
the facial type being characteristically Indian. Plate 10, figure 1, 
and plate 11. figure 1, show typical Indian faces of to-day, and cor- 
responding closely are certain skillfully modeled faces employed in 
embellishing earthen water bottles by the ancient Peruvians (pi. 10, 
fig. 2, and pi. 11. fig. 2). These striking physiognomies differ some- 
what in form and expression from the incisive faces of the northern 
Indians, but show no definite traces of exotic admixture. 

EXCEPTIONAL AMERICAN TYPES. 

Notwithstanding the homogeneity in type of the Indian tribes 
from the Eskimo boundary on the north to Patagonia on the south, 
there are in the sculptured and modeled faces of ancient Mexico and 
Central America suggestions of facial conformation so distinctive 
and unusual that they have become the subject of much speculation, 
the problems involved being among the most interesting that have 
arisen regarding the history of man and culture in America. The 
problem to be solved is whether or not these exceptional features 
which appear in Toltec and Maya art are due to the intrusion of 



ABORIGINAL AMERICANS — HOLMES. 



431 



Asiatic elements in comparatively recent centuries. The accom- 
panying illustrations will sufficiently present the supposed evidence 
of foreign intrusion. Plate 1, figure 1, and plate 11, figure 1, illus- 
trate physiognomies of normal Indian type. These are to be com- 
pared with plate 12, figure 1, which reproduces an ancient earthen- 
ware face of a type found in the State of Vera Cruz and believed 
to be of Aztec or Toltec origin. They were probably employed in 
the embellishment of earthen vessels or as architectural details. The 
well-modeled, smiling faces are broad and flat, with weak chins, 
and high cheek bones and distinctly narrow tilted eyes. Still more 
unusual are the faces shown in plate 12, figure 2, and plate 13, figure 
1, sculptured heads of a type quite common as architectural embel- 
lishments in the ancient temples of Guatemala. In general contour 
the face contrasts strongly with that of the average Indian, the 
features lacking all the boldness and virility of the tribes of to-day. 
At the same time there is in the smooth, roundish, placid face, the 
small mouth, and in the tilted eyes a decided suggestion of the 
features of the Orient, and especially of the placid countenance so 
characteristic of sculptured images of Buddha (pi. 13, fig. 2). The 
suggestion of Asiatic influence is strengthened by a study of other 
ancient sculptural and architectural remains found in great plenty 
in Mexico and the Central American States. An example is shown 
in plate 14. 

Numerous authors have found in these and other features of Maya 
sculpture convincing proof of the early introduction of Asiatic influ- 
ence in Mexico and Central America, while other writers, with equal 
confidence, express the view that the features in question are without 
particular significance, being nothing more than normal variants of 
native types. The Maya peoples were exceedingly versatile and in 
their treatment of the human physiognomy were much given to the 
grotesque and humorous. This tendency was emphasized by the prac- 
tice of introducing images of grotesque animistic deities into every 
phase of their sculptural and plastic art. The calm, well-modeled 
Buddhalike faces appear out of keeping with their vigorously mod- 
eled neighbors, and, if not portraits of individuals, they would seem 
at least to represent a well-marked and familiar facial type, whether 
native or otherwise. Mention may be made of other suggestive fea- 
tures of Maya culture which tend to support the theory of foreign 
influence. To one at all conversant with the architecture of the East 
Indies these Central American ruins have a familiar look not readily 
explained save on the theory of relationship in origin. This impres- 
sion is not readily overcome, and it is further observed that the sug- 
gestion does not end with general effects, for the architectural de- 
tails and especially the sculptural embellishments and the manner 



432 ANNUAL. REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 

of their application to the buildings confirm the impression. In the 
pose of figures the parallelism is truly remarkable, and that this 
parallelism could arise in two centers of culture (and two only) 
among totally isolated peoples occupying opposite sides of the globe 
challenges belief. It is further observed that in these ambitious 
structures there are suggestions of underlying crudeness as if the 
ideals of an advanced culture had been abruptly imposed upon the 
crude beginnings of a comparatively primitive people. 

It is objected that in Maya art there are found no sculptured ani- 
mal forms absolutely identical with those of the Old World. The 
elephant, for example, so important a sculptural subject in India, 
does not appear in these ruins, although there are snout-like features 
that suggest the trunk. On this point it should be noted that even 
if visits of Buddhistic priests are allowed, full identity in the sculp- 
tured forms of animals could hardly be expected, since the priests, 
devoted to the preaching of their doctrine, would hardly be archi- 
tects, sculptors, or draftsmen, and the concepts introduced by them 
by word of mouth would from necessity be worked out "by native 
sculptors, using life forms with which they were familiar or mon- 
sters drawn from their Pantheon of deities. 

With respect to the manner in which elements of Asiatic culture 
could reach middle America in the early Christian centuries — the 
period of Buddhistic propagandism — it may be said that the sea- 
going capacity of the ships of that period was very considerable, and 
it is thus not impossible that by design or by accident Buddhistic 
devotees should have landed on the shores of America. Neither is 
it impossible that these devotees of a creed, determined to carry their 
doctrines to the ends of the earth, should have coasted eastern 
Asia, reaching the continent of North America by way of the Aleu- 
tian Islands. The journey from Alaska to middle America would 
be a long one, but not beyond the range of possible achievement for 
the fanatical devotees of Buddhism. The suggestion that the hypo- 
thetical sunken continent of the Pacific may have served as a bridge 
is deserving of but slight attention. 

The writer of this sketch of a fascinating subject wishes to say in 
conclusion that he appreciates its shortcomings, for it is intended to 
be suggestive merely rather than final; but he finds gratification in 
the thought engendered by the study that whereas but a few genera- 
tions ago our world outlook was exceedingly limited and our positive 
knowledge but a hint of the whole truth, the time is fast approaching 
as a result of the ever- widening scope of scientific research when we 
shall comprehend at a glance the world and its inhabitants, present 
and past, with the ease with which we now contemplate our local 
environment or with which we view a story thrown upon the screen. 



Smithsonian Report, 1919. — Holmes. PLATE I. 




I. An American Indian Man. Compare with 
Figure 2. 




■ ■ . . • 




2. An Eskimo Man of Alaska. 



Smithsonian Report, 1919, — Holmes. 



Plate 2. 




I. An American Indian Woman. Comparewith 
Figure 2. 




2. An Eskimo Woman of Alaska. 



Smithsonian Report, 1919. — Holmes. PLATE 3. 




I. An American Indian Man. Compare with 
Figure 2. 




2. A Native of Formosa. 



Plate 4. 




Young Apache Indians, for Comparison with Natives of Sumatra and the 
Philippines, Plates 5 and 6. 



Smithsonian Report, 1919, 



. — Holmes. 



Plate 5. 



i 




A Native of the Province of Isabel, Philip- 
pine Islands, whose Features Suggest the 
American Indian Type. 




A Native of Pagi Island, Sumatra, Strongly 
Suggesting the American Indian Type. 



Smithsonian Report, 1919. — Holmes. 



Plate 7. 




2. An Asiatic Mongol. 



Smithsonian Report, 1919. — Holmes. PLATE 8. 




I. A Cheyenne Indian Woman. Compare with 
Figure 2. 




2. A Kalmuck Woman. 



Smithsonian Report, 1919. — Holmes. 



Plate 9. 




2. An Asiatic Mongol Profile. 



Smithsonian Report, 1919. — Holmes. 



Plate 1 1 . 




2. A Prehistoric Peruvian Indian, Modeled in 
Clay. 



Smithsonian Report, 1919. — Holmes. PLATE 12. 




2. A Sculptured Head of the Ancient Maya 
Indians of Guatemala. 



Smithsonian Report, 1919. — Holmes. 



Plate 1 4. 




Stucco Masterpiece, Temple of the Beau Relief, Palenque, Yucatan. 



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